Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing Setup Guide
Copyright © 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Your rights to the software are governed by the accompanying software license agreement. The owner or authorized user of a valid copy of Final Cut Studio or Logic Studio software may reproduce this publication for the purpose of learning to use such software. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this publication or for providing paid for support services.
Contents Preface 5 5 6 6 Welcome to Distributed Processing About the Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System About the Distributed Processing Documentation Additional Resources Chapter 1 9 9 10 13 13 13 Distributed Processing Basics Using Distributed Processing to Increase Speed and Efficiency Basic Components of the Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System QuickClusters Compressor AutoClusters How the Apple Qmaster System Distributes Batches Chapter 2 15 Getting Started Quickly 15 Quick and
Chapter 5 47 47 48 55 58 Creating Clusters An Overview of Configuring a Cluster Configuring Service Nodes and Cluster Controllers Creating Clusters with Apple Qadministrator About QuickClusters Chapter 6 61 61 63 63 63 67 68 70 73 73 Administering Clusters Modifying and Deleting Clusters with Apple Qadministrator Monitoring Cluster Activity Accessing Activity Logs Setting Preferences Setting Passwords Scheduling Service Availability Using Cluster Storage Defining Ports for Service Advertisements Rec
Preface Welcome to Distributed Processing Transcoding or processing a series of large files on one desktop computer is processor intensive and time-consuming. You can increase speed and productivity by distributing processing across multiple computers. This preface covers the following: • About the Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System (p. 5) • About the Distributed Processing Documentation (p. 6) • Additional Resources (p.
About the Distributed Processing Documentation The Apple Qmaster distributed processing system is included with every copy of Final Cut Studio and Shake. The system comes with various documents that help you get started as well as provide detailed information about each of the applications. (To access onscreen help for an application, open the application and choose the application’s help from the Help menu.
Final Cut Studio Website For general information and updates, as well as the latest news on Final Cut Studio, go to: • http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio Compressor Website For general information and updates, as well as the latest news on Compressor, go to: • http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/compressor Apple Service and Support Websites For software updates and answers to the most frequently asked questions for all Apple products, go to the general Apple Support webpage.
Distributed Processing Basics 1 This section introduces most of the basic concepts and terms related to using the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system. This chapter covers the following: • Using Distributed Processing to Increase Speed and Efficiency (p. 9) • Basic Components of the Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System (p. 10) • QuickClusters (p. 13) • Compressor AutoClusters (p. 13) • How the Apple Qmaster System Distributes Batches (p.
Computers that submit batches to the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system are called clients. A job is a processing task such as a Compressor preset-source pair, or a Shake file, or other files or commands that use UNIX commands to specify settings such as rendering instructions and file locations and destinations. Network Batch of processing jobs Client computer Jobs are submitted. Processed files Apple Qmaster cluster Processing is performed by cluster.
• Cluster controller: The software, enabled on a computer by means of the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences, that divides up batches, determines which service nodes to send work to, and generally tracks and directs the processes.
Clusters When a client sends batches to the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system, all the processing and subsequent moving of any output files is performed by a group of Apple Qmaster–configured computers called a cluster. You can create one or more clusters of service nodes, with one cluster controller included in each cluster. Each computer in the cluster is connected to the other computers in the cluster through a network connection.
You make a computer available as a cluster controller by turning on the cluster–controlling service in the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences. QuickClusters The QuickCluster feature of the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system is a simple and automated alternative to creating and configuring clusters manually. For more information about QuickClusters, see Creating QuickClusters.
Rather than actually moving segments, Apple Qmaster tells the service nodes which segments to read via the network, where to find them, and what to do with them. Below is an example of how one batch could be processed in an Apple Qmaster system.
Getting Started Quickly 2 The Apple Qmaster distributed processing system has default settings that allow you to use distributed processing immediately. This chapter covers the following: • Quick and Easy Distributed Processing (p. 15) • About the Compressor Service Sharing Pane (p. 19) Quick and Easy Distributed Processing The steps below describe the simplest and quickest way to start using distributed processing.
However, in most standard distributed processing networks, you need to install Apple Qmaster software on every computer in the network. You can use the standalone Apple Qmaster Node Installer to install the Apple Qmaster software on additional computers on your network. a Locate the folder containing the Apple Qmaster software. • If you are using Compressor: Insert the Final Cut Studio installation disc and locate the Apple Qmaster Node Installer package (AppleQmasterNode.mpkg).
Stage 2: Configuring a QuickCluster Use the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences to configure the cluster controller and service node computers. To configure the cluster controller and service node computers 1 Open System Preferences. 2 Click the Apple Qmaster button, located in the Other section. The Apple Qmaster pane appears. 3 If the pane is locked, unlock it by clicking the padlock in the lower-left corner to enter the administrator name and password. 4 Click Start Sharing.
2 Click the Apple Qmaster button, located in the Other section. The Apple Qmaster pane appears. 3 If the pane is locked, unlock it by clicking the padlock in the lower-left corner to enter the administrator name and password. 4 Select “Services only.” 5 Click Start Sharing. This creates a service node that will automatically process jobs submitted to the QuickCluster you set up in Stage 2: Configuring a QuickCluster.
• If you are using Apple Qmaster: In the Apple Qmaster window, choose the cluster you created in stage 2 from the Submit To pop-up menu. 2 Click Submit. The distributed processing system processes the batch.
Preparing a Network for Distributed Processing 3 A distributed processing network can consist of as few as one or two computers, whereas a high-volume network may include many computers, an Xserve system and Xserve cluster nodes in a rack, and high-speed networking infrastructures. You can scale up a distributed processing system as your workload demands by adding features and devices to the network that supports it. This chapter covers the following: • The Minimum You Need to Know (p.
For information about a very basic setup, see Example of a Minimal Distributed Processing Network.
Using Compressor AutoClusters The AutoCluster feature in Compressor gives you an easy way to take advantage of the distributed processing capabilities offered by Apple Qmaster without requiring a lot of knowledge about how clusters are configured, how to set up file sharing, and so on.
You can change any of these settings at a later time in the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences. For more information, see Apple Qmaster Pane of System Preferences and Administering Clusters. Important: Although the Final Cut Studio installer requires a separate serial number for each computer, you can use the Apple Qmaster Node Installer (available in the Extras folder) to install the necessary Apple Qmaster software to make any computer on your network into an Apple Qmaster service node.
• Multiple clusters: Depending on how extensive your network is and how many clients it needs to serve, you may want to divide up available computers and create more than one cluster to serve various clients. (Users select the cluster they want to send a batch to when they submit the batch.) • Multiple service nodes: In general, more service nodes mean more processing power. In deciding how many service nodes to have in a cluster, consider the ratio of data movement time to computing time.
Example of an Expanded Distributed Processing Network For rendering, a network might include a number of client computers on a LAN, connected to a cluster using a high-speed switch. A rack of servers plus a shared storage device, acting as the cluster, would be an extremely strong rendering engine. The service nodes would each have a local copy of the relevant client application software so that they could process the rendering jobs.
This setup is for an environment that uses desktop computers. It is called “part-time” processing because each computer acts as someone’s workstation, but at the same time is also part of the distributed processing cluster. The bulk of the processing jobs can be submitted with Compressor or Apple Qmaster at the end of the day, so that the computers are busy processing a large queue of distributed processing batches after everyone has gone home.
• All the computers in the setup need read-and-write access to any volumes that will be specified as the source location or output destination for files, including Shake scripts. (An appropriate way to configure this access is included in the sample configuration procedure below.) Stage 1: Installing Compressor and/or Apple Qmaster The necessary components of Compressor or Apple Qmaster need to be installed on each computer. See Stage 1: Installing the Software for more information.
Setting Up for Part-Time Distributed Processing with Shake If you cannot consolidate all of the necessary source files (Shake scripts, media files, and so on) on a single-cluster storage volume, follow the instructions below.
To mount the media storage volumes 1 On each computer, log in as the administrator. (The first user account you create when you set up Mac OS X is an administrator account.) 2 On each computer in the group, use the Connect to Server command in the Finder’s Go menu to mount each media volume. 3 Enter another computer’s name in the Connect to Server dialog. 4 Choose the associated media volume as the volume you want to mount.
Specifying Shake Script Locations in Apple Qmaster As you follow the steps in Setting Up for Part-Time Distributed Processing with Shake, all the Shake script locations should be specified in Apple Qmaster as /Volumes/MediaDiskName/ScriptFilename (for example, /Volumes/Media3/Script.shk).
The Interfaces 4 Instead of one individual interface, the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system includes up to four different applications and utilities for configuring, monitoring, and managing services. This chapter covers the following: • The Interfaces in the Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System (p. 33) • Apple Qmaster Pane of System Preferences (p. 35) • Apple Qadministrator (p. 41) • Compressor and Apple Qmaster as Client Interfaces (p. 43) • Batch Monitor (p.
In general, you use the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences to configure service nodes and cluster controllers and to create simple clusters. System administrators use Apple Qadministrator for advanced cluster creation and control. Client users use Compressor or Apple Qmaster to submit batches of jobs for processing. Finally, Batch Monitor can be used by both administrators and client users to monitor and manage batches.
Apple Qmaster Pane of System Preferences Use the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences to activate, create, or make changes to Apple Qmaster cluster-controlling and processing services (including passwords and scratch storage locations).
The Apple Qmaster pane appears.
About Basic Settings in the Apple Qmaster Preferences Pane You can use the Setup pane within the Apple Qmaster preferences pane to configure your distributed processing system. Sharing Settings • “Share this computer as” buttons: Use these buttons to assign a distributed processing role to your computer. • QuickCluster with services: Select this option to create an “instant” cluster with unmanaged services. See About QuickClusters for more information.
• “Options for selected service” button: Click this button to open a dialog in which you can you can adjust the number of instances of a processing service. For more information, see Using Virtual Clusters to Make the Most of Multiprocessor Computers. QuickCluster Settings • “Identify this QuickCluster as” field: Use this field to change the name of a QuickCluster. For more information, see About QuickClusters.
About Advanced Settings in the Apple Qmaster Preferences Pane You can use the Advanced pane within the Apple Qmaster preferences pane to further configure your distributed processing system. Advanced Service Settings Use these features to schedule service restarts and service availability. • “Restart all services every 24 hours” checkbox: Selecting the “Restart all services every 24 hours” checkbox ensures a robust distributed processing system.
• Cluster Storage button: Enter a local folder directory to change the scratch location for the cluster’s temporary process files. See Using Cluster Storage for more information. Network Use these features to configure network settings. • “Allow discovery via Bonjour” checkbox: By default, this checkbox is selected to have the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system use the Bonjour networking technology. You can deselect the “Allow discovery via Bonjour” checkbox for enhanced security.
Apple Qadministrator Use the Apple Qadministrator application to create and modify Apple Qmaster clusters. Apple Qadministrator can be used on any computer that is on the same network as the cluster you want to administer. With the administrator password (if one was created), you can also use Apple Qadministrator to see and modify existing clusters on the network. Use Apple Qadministrator to assemble clusters: Drag available service nodes to assign them to a cluster.
The Apple Qadministrator window appears. If a password was created for the currently selected cluster, you will not be able to see or modify the cluster until you click the Lock button and then enter the password in the dialog that appears.
Compressor and Apple Qmaster as Client Interfaces Client computer users use either Compressor or Apple Qmaster to submit batches for processing. Batch Use Compressor to submit a batch to a cluster: Batch Cluster A Use Apple Qmaster to submit a batch to a cluster: Batch Batch Network Cluster B Using Compressor Use the Cluster pop-up menu in the Compressor Batch window to choose a cluster for any given batch. For more information on submitting batches with Compressor, see the Compressor User Manual.
The Compressor default window layout appears. Using Apple Qmaster The Apple Qmaster application is the application that you use to submit distributed processing jobs from digital visual effects software packages such as Shake, Autodesk Maya, and any UNIX command-line program. You can use any of the following workflows in Apple Qmaster: • For Shake processing batches, you can drag Shake files into the Apple Qmaster window. A default script for submitting the jobs is automatically created.
The Apple Qmaster window appears. Batch Monitor As an administrator, you can use Batch Monitor to track the progress of all the batch activity for all the clusters on your network. You can see how close to completion each job is, along with other details, and you can stop, resume, or delete batches as well. If you are a client user, you can use Batch Monitor to view and manage your own batches.
Batch Monitor opens.
Creating Clusters 5 Once your network is set up and you have installed the necessary components, you are ready to create distributed processing clusters. If you have questions about any concepts and terms used here, see Distributed Processing Basics. This chapter covers the following: • An Overview of Configuring a Cluster (p. 47) • Configuring Service Nodes and Cluster Controllers (p. 48) • Creating Clusters with Apple Qadministrator (p. 55) • About QuickClusters (p.
Stage 3: Creating a Cluster You can create a simple QuickCluster in the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences, or you can create a managed cluster from the service nodes and cluster controller using Apple Qadministrator. After a cluster is created, client applications on the same network can start sending batches to the cluster. You can use Apple Qadministrator from any computer (with Apple Qadministrator installed) that is on the same network as an Apple Qmaster cluster.
• Services and cluster controller: Select this option to build a cluster in Apple Qadministrator. (See Creating Clusters with Apple Qadministrator for more information.) • Services only: Select this option to make this computer a service node only. Service nodes perform the processing of batches. They can be included in QuickClusters or in managed clusters. (See Managed vs. Unmanaged Services for more information.
Setting the Name By default, a computer is identified on the network by its computer name (as it is entered in the Sharing pane in System Preferences). You can change this name to something more meaningful if you like, since it is the name used to identify this computer in the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system. If you are setting up a QuickCluster, this is the name that will appear in the Compressor Cluster pop-up menu or the Apple Qmaster Submit To pop-up menu.
• Red: Connection failure Click the icon to reveal additional information, including the service node’s IP address, port number, and capture status, as well as a link to the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences. To show the service node status indicator in the menu bar 1 Open the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences. 2 Click Advanced to open the Advanced pane. 3 Select the “Show Qmaster service status in menu bar” checkbox. Managed vs.
Unmanaged Services Unmanaged services automatically assign themselves to the first available QuickCluster with enabled unmanaged service support. QuickClusters listen for unmanaged service advertisements and may mark or remember any of them for later use. A QuickCluster can use any available unmanaged service on the same local network (subnet). An unmanaged service remains dedicated to its QuickCluster only long enough to finish the current job.
Note: If processing services are enabled, you must turn them off before you can adjust the processing service type. To set managed processing services 1 Open the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences. 2 Select the checkbox in the Managed column. To set unmanaged processing services 1 Open the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences. 2 Deselect the checkbox in the Managed column. To turn off processing services 1 In the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences, click Stop Sharing.
3 In the “Share this computer as” section, select one of the following buttons: • QuickCluster with services: Select this option to create an “instant” cluster with unmanaged services. • Services and cluster controller: Select this option to build a cluster in Apple Qadministrator. (See Creating Clusters with Apple Qadministrator for more information.) Also see Managed vs. Unmanaged Services for more information. 4 In the Share column, select the checkbox. 5 Click Start Sharing.
4 In the dialog that appears, choose the number of instances from the pop-up menu. Choose the number of instances from the pop-up menu. 5 Click OK. 6 In the Services section, select the Share checkbox for the service. Note: The Service Options dialog is also used to add extended nodes to a cluster, as described in the Apple Qmaster User Manual.
b Select Untitled Cluster and rename it. (The cluster name you create will also appear in the cluster pop-up menus in Batch Monitor and Apple Qmaster.) ... then rename the Untitled Cluster. Click the Add button... 2 From the Controller pop-up menu, choose a cluster controller from those available on the network. Use this pop-up menu to choose a cluster controller. Note: If a password was created for the cluster controller in System Preferences, a password authentication dialog appears.
To add a service node to a cluster 1 If the Qmaster Service Browser is not already displayed, click the disclosure triangle to see it. Click this disclosure triangle to see available nodes. 2 Add service nodes to the new cluster by dragging them from the Qmaster Service Browser list at the bottom of the window to the cluster’s service nodes list.
Note: Although Apple Qadministrator currently allows you to create a cluster with unmanaged services, valid clusters require at least one managed service for the cluster to be viewable in Apple Qmaster, Compressor, and Batch Monitor. About QuickClusters QuickClusters offer a simple and automated way to create and configure clusters, as well as an alternative to creating and configuring clusters manually with Apple Qadministrator.
Note: It’s easiest to do this now because you can’t configure these settings when processing services are enabled. To configure these settings after services have been enabled, you need to turn off the services, configure the settings, and then turn the services on again. 4 Click Start Sharing. This creates a QuickCluster with this computer as its controller.
Administering Clusters 6 As the administrator of your distributed processing network, you can set a number of cluster options and security controls. You may also want to know about failure notification and recovery features. If you have questions about any concepts and terms used here, see Distributed Processing Basics. This chapter covers the following: • Modifying and Deleting Clusters with Apple Qadministrator (p. 61) • Monitoring Cluster Activity (p. 63) • Accessing Activity Logs (p.
Note: Unless Apple Qadministrator and the QuickCluster are on the same computer, QuickClusters are not visible in Apple Qadministrator. Only managed clusters can be modified and deleted in Apple Qadministrator. Managed clusters are clusters that were created in Apple Qadministrator. QuickClusters must be modified in the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences. To modify a cluster 1 Open Apple Qadministrator. 2 In the Cluster list (on the left side of the window), select the cluster you want to change.
2 Type a new name, then press Return. To delete a cluster in Apple Qadministrator 1 In the Cluster list, select the cluster you want to delete. 2 Click the Remove (–) button. Monitoring Cluster Activity You can use Apple Qadministrator to find out what is happening within a cluster by examining details (such as processor usage, which batch is being processed, disk space usage, and data activity) about each node in the cluster.
3 Click Preferences. Click Preferences to display the Preferences tab. 4 Set any of the preferences listed in About the Apple Qadministrator Preferences Tab. µ To set preferences for using Apple Qadministrator over a wide area network Choose Apple Qadministrator > Preferences, or press Command-Comma (,). About the Apple Qadministrator Preferences Tab This section describes the features available in the Apple Qadministrator Preferences tab.
• Email notification for service down after: Set how much time should pass, after a service becomes inaccessible, before the cluster controller sends an alert message to the administrator. (See About the Work Schedule Dialog.) • Status Interval: Set how often status information about this cluster should be generated and sent to Batch Monitor. Email Notification To have the cluster controller send service failure alerts to an administrator, enter the relevant information in the fields provided.
Remote Computer Address Dialog This dialog is displayed when you click the Add/Remove button in the main Preferences dialog. Use this dialog to enter IP addresses or ranges for remote computers. • Host and “Host IP address range” buttons: These buttons control whether this dialog is in IP Address mode (in which you enter a specific address) or IP Address Range mode (in which you enter a range of addresses). • Host: Use this mode to enter a host name and IP address for a specific remote computer.
The hosts or host ranges appear in the Host table in the main Preferences dialog. Setting Passwords You can create several types of passwords for the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system. All these passwords are optional; you can use the system without creating them. • Cluster administrator password: A password required for modifying a cluster in Apple Qadministrator, and for modifying the status of the cluster’s batches in Batch Monitor. See Setting Cluster Administrator and User Passwords.
Note: A service password can be stored in a user’s keychain. To set a service password 1 On the computer designated as the service node or cluster controller, open the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences. 2 If any Apple Qmaster services are enabled on this computer, temporarily turn them off by clicking Stop Sharing. 3 Click Require Password. The password dialog opens. 4 Enter and verify a password, then click OK.
About the Work Schedule Dialog The calendar interface of the work schedule dialog contains several useful features. You can use the following controls to constrain the availability of unmanaged services for each day of the week: • On/Off pop-up menu: Use this pop-up menu to turn services on or off for a particular day of the week. • On: This setting indicates that the services are available for all 24 hours of that particular day. (This is the default setting for all seven days of the week.
2 To constrain the availability of the services, choose one of the options from the pop-up menu next to a particular day of the week. See About the Work Schedule Dialog for details. 3 Enter any constraining time periods in the appropriate start time and end time fields. Note: You must enter valid days and times. The time cannot overlap into the next day in one entry. There must be two entries when the range ends after 12 a.m.
4 Click the Set button next to the Cluster Storage field. Click Set to open a dialog for choosing a new storage folder. 5 Navigate to the folder in the dialog, select it, and then click Choose. Note: If you are using the default This Computer setting in the Cluster pop-up menu in the Compressor Batch window and you choose Cluster Storage as the destination, the output file will be copied to the Source location.
To change cluster storage settings 1 On the cluster controller, open the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences. 2 If any Apple Qmaster services are enabled on this computer, click Stop Sharing to temporarily turn them off. Note: Do not attempt to change the cluster storage settings while the cluster is turned on. 3 Click Advanced to open the Advanced pane.
QuickTime Reference Movies If you submit a reference movie for distributed processing, the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system will automatically copy the appropriate media files to the processing cluster. For the best performance, you can avoid this file transfer step by making sure that the media files specified in the reference movie are available to each node of the Apple Qmaster cluster.
If a Batch Is Interrupted When a service stops suddenly while in the middle of processing an Apple Qmaster batch, the cluster controller resubmits the interrupted batch in a way that prevents the reprocessing of any batch segments that were complete before the service stopped. The cluster controller delays resuming the batch for about a minute from the time it loses contact with the service. If a Batch Fails When the service is running, but one batch fails to process, a service exception occurs.
Processing service type Notification label Distributed Apple Qmaster service servicecontroller:com.apple.qmaster.
Using the Command Line 7 If you are accustomed to doing your work from Terminal shells, and you need or prefer to run the distributed processing system from the command line with minimal use of application interfaces, this appendix is for you.
4 Repeat these steps for each computer in your distributed processing network. Tip: You can also install Apple Qmaster using Apple Remote Desktop. Just select a node, click Install Package, and select the standalone installer package (AppleQmasterNode.mpkg). The copy and installation process is done automatically. Using the Command Line for Distributed Processing The following sections describe how to issue shell commands (from the command line) to run your distributed processing network.
Preference command option Description -launchContentAgent Automatically launches content agent at startup. -log [0-5] [truncate on | off] Sets logging level. Default is 3. Off is 0. Sets whether logs are overwritten when services are restarted. -statusMenu Displays service node status indicator in menu bar. -cluster [options] Turns cluster-controlling services on or off. All [options] are: -service “name” [on|off] [options] Turns service on or off.
µ To start sharing Enter the following: qmasterprefs -startSharing µ To change the cluster storage path to an Xsan volume Enter the following: qmasterprefs -cluster off storagepath /Volumes/XsanVol µ To change the number of Compressor Processing services from 2 to 4 Enter the following: qmasterprefs -service "Compressor Processing" off sharing on instances 4 µ To turn off the Rendering service Enter the following: qmasterprefs -service Rendering off µ To turn on unmanaged services for Compressor Pr
Note: Not all the options are necessary. For example, you can specify the cluster either by its -clustername or by its -clusterid. You do not need to specify both. If both are specified, only -clusterid is used. Additionally, if you specify -batchfilepath, then -jobpath, -settingpath, and -destinationpath are not necessary because the previously saved batch file already contains information about the job, settings, and destination.
Submission command option Description -timeout Use to specify the number of seconds before Compressor can quit when looking for a cluster. The default value is 0, which puts no limit on the timeout and allows Compressor to browse the network for as long as it needs to find the cluster. -show Shows the ID information for the cluster specified with -clustername or -clusterid, or for all clusters if no cluster is specified.
Once the job is submitted successfully, this command displays the batch ID (identifier) and job ID (identifier) in the shell. Command Options This table provides information about each of the command options for submitting jobs. Submission command option Description -clustername Use to specify the name of the cluster to which you want to send the job. Using the cluster name, Apple Qmaster looks for the cluster on the network in order to use it.
/Applications/Apple\ Qmaster.app/Contents/MacOS/Apple\ Qmaster -clustername elvis -command "Shake" -options "PAGE 85Monitoring command option Description -jobid -batchid Use to specify the job you want to monitor. When you use the -jobid option, you must also specify the -batchid, in the form of the name that was given to the batch when it was submitted. (The -batchid and -jobid are displayed after a batch is submitted.) If you do not use the -jobid option, all the jobs submitted to the specified cluster are listed.
Compressor Script Example #!/bin/csh -f # # set env var, COMPRESSOR_LOCATION if not set # if ${?COMPRESSOR_LOCATION} == 0 then pushd `dirname $0` >& /dev/null setenv COMPRESSOR_LOCATION /Applications/Compressor.
Appendix Solving Problems If you are having trouble with your Apple Qmaster distributed processing system, look here for answers to your questions. This appendix covers the following: • Resources for Solving Problems (p. 87) • Solutions to Common Problems (p. 87) • Contacting AppleCare Support (p. 92) Resources for Solving Problems If you run into problems while working with Compressor or the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system, there are several resources you can use to find a solution.
Exporting from Final Cut Pro and Distributed Processing You can use Compressor to transcode sequences or clips from within other applications, such as Final Cut Pro. This saves time and hard disk space by eliminating the need to export self-contained media files before processing them.
Important: The hard disk you use to store the media files may not be a startup disk for any computer in the cluster. 3 In Final Cut Pro, set the scratch disk to the same hard disk used for storing media files in step 2: a Choose Final Cut Pro > System Settings, then click the Scratch Disks tab. b Click Set. c In the dialog that appears, locate and select the disk you want to use (Media1 in this example). d Click Choose.
4 In the Batch window, assign settings and destinations to the selected file as necessary. 5 Click the Submit button. The submit dialog appears. 6 Do one of the following: • Choose the intended cluster from the Cluster pop-up menu. • Select the “Include unmanaged services on other computers” checkbox to use the AutoCluster feature. See Using Compressor AutoClusters for more information. 7 Click Submit.
9 Double-click the file in the Batch window and play it in the Preview window to verify the integrity of the clip. 10 In the Batch window, assign settings and destinations to the selected file as necessary. 11 Click the Submit button. The submit dialog appears. 12 Do one of the following: • Choose the intended cluster from the Cluster pop-up menu. • Select the “Include unmanaged services on other computers” checkbox to use the AutoCluster feature. See Using Compressor AutoClusters for more information.
Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing and Xsan Here are some tips on using the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system with Xsan systems. Restarting Apple Qmaster and Xsan Systems Using previous versions of Apple Qmaster distributed processing on an Xsan system may cause mounting problems when restarting an Apple Qmaster distributed processing cluster controller. You must restart Apple Qmaster and Xsan computers in the exact order described below.
Note: The 11-digit Support ID number is different from the product serial number used to install Final Cut Studio. • The version of Mac OS X you have installed. This information can be viewed by choosing About This Mac from the Apple menu. • The version of Compressor and Apple Qmaster you have installed, including updates if applicable. The version number can be viewed by choosing Compressor > About Compressor and Apple Qmaster > About Apple Qmaster. • The model of computer you are using.
